The Good and Bad of a Stalk of Celery

What's in a stalk of celery, besides water?

Oops...sugar. I'll tell you the bad first, it's a short list.

Celery's Bad

Celery is high in sodium and what calories it has are mainly from the sugar, with which it is loaded.

It has over the 100 glycemic allowable load by 150; meaning celery contains about 250 of the glycemic load. Way too much if you are concerned about diabetes. Munch carefully.

Celery's Good:

Celery is mildly anti-inflammatory. If you have a typical anti-inflammatory goal of 50 as your target load, celery contains 14 of that. That's good, many foods are better.

Celery is also low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.

See? That makes it a good snack, if you're not concerned about the sugar. Moderation, please!

Some "experts" say that celery has negative calories because it takes more energy to burn it up than what calories came into your body by eating it.

However, that's not necessarily true due to the effect of the sugar on the body when you eat celery or other high sugar content foods.

One cup of cooked celery,chopped contains about 27 calories if it was cooked unsalted and in water.

That same cup contains:

• Vitamin A17%
• Vitamin C15%
• Calcium 6%
• Iron 3%
• Thiamin 4%
• Riboflavin 4%
• Niacin 2%
• Pantothenic Acid 3%
• Vitamin B 66%
• Potassium12%
• Phosphorus 4%
• Magnesium 4%
• Zinc 1%
• Copper 3%

So, you can judge for yourself if you want to munch it raw or use it cooked, either way there are many health benefits, if you can stand the added sugar to your diet.

We all love it in soups, salads, and dips. Since most of us consume less than 1 cup of it when we include it recipes, we're not in too much danger of gaining weight from less than 27 calories.

I repeat...watch the sugar and salt content. And, get this...

1 cup of RAW celery, is 16 calories, 1 large stalk is about 10 calories,

I don't know why the cooked celery increases it's calories...we'll leave that for other "experts.."

In summary, snack away, but be careful and don't eat your weight in it if you're worried about sugar and we all should. (There! With all the warnings about the sugar in this piece, I feel blameless.)